The invention relates to an apparatus for supporting performance of the heart in which fluid is taken from blood vessels via a suction catheter and a suction means, and is returned to the blood vessels via a return catheter, the amount of fluid being controlled as a function of measured values.
After heart failure, especially a cardiac infarction or other event that causes a decrease in heart performance, it is important for intensive medicine to normalize and stabilize cardiac function again as quickly as possible. Especially when, for example, the volumetric performance of the heart is clearly reduced as a result of failure, the intention is to reliably and promptly restore corresponding peripheral circulation in order to prevent secondary damage. Use of heart-lung machines in principle allows important liver functions to be maintained. But special adaptation to the specific requirements at the time is generally not done with such machines. Rather, conventional heart-lung machines merely maintain forced blood circulation using external pumps without deliberately understanding the respective requirements of the weakened or failed heart.
In surgery, especially in the area of the veins, it has already been suggested that retroinfusion controlled by venous pressure out of or into the veins of the body be done with the suction of fluid and return of the fluid via a pump. Here conventional catheters are used with lumina which allow fluid suction and via which lumina return is enabled at a suitable location. Known means, especially for retroinfusion of blood in coronary veins in the area of myocardial protection during a brief closure of the coronary arteries within the framework of heart surgery, are generally undertaken such that the balloon dilation of a coronary artery narrowed by arteriosclerosis is done. In these cases, compensation which has been adapted to the brief intervention can be done by return of the suctioned blood into the veins. For continuous restitution of complete function of a heart however, those criteria cannot be considered which would be relevant for complete function of the heart and therefore there is no intensive supply over a certain time interval with these means. At the same time, the supply to the other organs must be maintained.
The object of the invention is to devise a modular means with which the respective requirements of all organ systems during intensive treatment of a damaged hart using conventional and tested components can be taken into account. To achieve this object, the means as claimed in the invention consists essentially in that there is at least one sensor which allows measurement of the volume of fluid per unit of time or determination of measured quantities which are proportional to the volume, and the sensor(s) is (are) connected to an evaluation circuit in which the ratio of the diastolic volume to the systolic volume per heartbeat or unit of time, especially the output rate and/or the deviation of the volume which has been delivered by the art per unit of time from a defined setpoint, for example the setpoint which has been computed from body-specific data for the cardiac output (HZV), is evaluated and a signal is generated the suction means is controlled depending on the generated signal. Catheters for intraventricular acquisition of the chamber volume are known. Conventionally, with these catheters which are inserted into the ventricle, an electrical field is generated at a host of sites and the conductivity is measured. Conclusions regarding the ventricle volume can be drawn from the measured values. Because at this point one such volume measurement is evaluated to the extent that the cardiac performance is checked, and especially the so-called output rate or the cardiac output is determined, it becomes possible to achieve optimization to the extent that a signal is generated with which a suction means can be controlled such that it in fact yields the additional necessary performance and, at the same time, reduces the volume remaining in the ventricle at each beat accordingly. Overall, with the means as claimed in the invention, the focus is on improvement of the output rate and thus improvement of the cardiac performance, and the use of measured values for the diastolic and systolic volume here for selective adaptation to the respective optimal attainable reduction of the interior volume of the heart can be represented and used for the required cardiac performance. The suction means thus should in principle replace that performance which cannot yet be furnished initially by the damaged heart, whereupon further measures can raise the cardiac performance accordingly to the normal amount. Preferably, the suction catheter is equipped with at least one sensor for volume measurement, preferably the suction catheter being made as a cardiac ventricle catheter. The suction means can be made as a controllable external pump in an especially simple way.
Advantageously, the design as claimed in the invention is made such that the control of the external suction means is connected such that the delivery performance of the external suction means is increased at a low output rate and at low delivery performance of the heart, and is reduced at correspondingly higher measured values. The delivery performance of the suction means or the pump is thus controlled primarily such that overall an output rate which corresponds to a healthy heart is simulated. The suction means can be operated, especially cycled, by which in the blood vessels, the corresponding pulse signals are also formed which contribute to normalization of the pulse frequency and cardiac performance. Advantageously, the design is made here such that the delivery performance of the of the external suction means or pump is controlled preferentially as a function of the measured values for the output rate up to achieving an output rate between 65 and 80%.
In addition to the output rate as a measure for the required correction measures and especially as a control signal for the performance of the external suction means or pump, advantageously a setpoint which has been computed from body-specific data can be used for the cardiac output as a measured quantity. Further adaptation and shortening of the interval until normalization of the suction performance of a heart can thus be achieved by the suction performance of the external suction means being undertaken depending on the computed and the measured cardiac output, such that the external suction means delivers the difference between the computed cardiac output and the measured value per unit of time.
In principle, as already mentioned, the suction means can preferably be controlled as a discontinuously cycled pump, by which better adaptation to the desired pulse frequency is achieved. In particular, it can be advantageous here to fix the cycle of the external suction means. In the case of tachycardia, one such fixed cycle frequency of the external suction means can however lead to undesired interference with the heart rate so that advantageously, the procedure is such that the suction means is synchronized to the heartbeat. In the case of tachycardia, the cycle of the suction means is reduced relative to the heartbeat in a defined ratio.
In order to ensure the correspondingly cycled return of the fluid, in addition to the measure of operating the external suction means discontinuously, in addition or alternatively also cycled perfusion with a catheter which occludes on a cycled basis can be done. Advantageously, the means as claimed in the invention can be operated such that return of the fluid by adjusting the cycle of the suction means of the discontinuously delivering suction means or by (cycled) perfusion with a catheter which occludes on a cycled basis takes place during the diastole, in the latter case optionally one continuously conveying external suction means or pump being used.
The blood is returned preferably in turn to an arterial vessel and at a suitable location near the point at which the blood was removed. In this way, it is ensured that circulation through all vessels is as uniform as possible is guaranteed.
A further improvement using the modularly built system arises when the process is such that blood from the right heart or large veins is removed volumetrically, enriched with O2 in a oxygen generator and pumped in the circulation.
The means as claimed in the invention is detailed schematically using the drawings.